Autism. Intentionality is tiring.

It's easy after a good few weeks of progress in Bright Eyes' life to just let things carry on. In other words, I don't work too hard, I don't think too much, and I don't really keep a close eye on how he's going, especially in his RDI work.

Unfortunately, letting things take their own course generally means that he falls back into bad habits and after a few weeks I start to feel frustrated and a little bit disconcerted about his behaviour.

Right now, he's struggling with coping with competition, he's quite hyperactive in the way he speaks to people and he's scripting pretty consistently - from Toy Story 3 this time.

Helping him grow new connections in his brain so that he can cope with life better takes a lot of intentionality in the way I relate to him. Unfortunately, intentionality on my part also takes effort and energy. There are days when it's all just exhausting and it seems easier to scream and yell, but I know that's completely counter-productive.

The marathon is certainly not over yet. We're past the stage where we're still looking back at the start line, wondering what we've gotten into and wishing we could just all go home, but we're still nowhere near the finish, even though we've come a reasonable distance.